Meccano SkegEx14

Don't miss the biggest event of the year...

More infornmation from the ticket office - Click HERE  for details!

Ralph.

Bring back the 52!

Never again will Meccano be retailed as the a system toy of its heyday, nor are we going to be able to buy single parts from the local toy shop. Like a lot of the parts themselves, the toy shops of my youth will never be resurrected.

Although the market and expectations have changed, there is one part from the  original range that still has just as much importance today as it had back them, yet for reasons that escape me, it is seldom seen. This part is still in production, it has been seen in a few new sets, and yet it is not given the kudos it deserves. That part is the 5½ x 2½ inch Flanged Plate, Part No.52 or as it is labelled today, A852.

A pair of 52s

It has appeared a couple of times lately, it was included in the Tintin Unicorn and the Rabbids Catapult sets, both now discontinued. It may have appeared in other sets but I can't bring any to mind, off the top of my head. It is still available in what is now called the Super Construction set. This set has been around for a while now, first appearing in 2001 as the Special Edition Anniversary (crane) set. The flanged plate in this set is finished in a very acceptable, crinkle finish, dark grey.

The 52 used to form the basis of every set since it's introduction in 1911 (and the addition of the end flanges in 1913) with the exception of the pocket Meccano set, until the demise of the 'progressive' sets in 1980s. The part has now been in production, in one form or another for over 100 years! Its rigid construction was ideal to use as the basis of small models and I believe could do so again.

We can't just look back at those old models with rose coloured spectacles wishing for a rebirth of the old sets, but what is reasonable is to look forward and campaign for that part to be included in some of the new wave of sets due to be introduced in the coming years.  Not only will that plate re-introduce a starting point for something to be built on, it will also give the rigidity to models that is so obviously missing in the current crop of set models.

          ...Come on Meccano, bring back the 52 

          in more of the smaller sets!

To prove the point, Let's show Meccano what can be built around that plate using current production parts only. That is, Meccano that is available in the sets listed in the product section of the official Meccano website, HERE.

Manuals for all the sets shown can be downloaded from the website and these list the parts available in each set. The number of parts is irrelevant, so long as the part it current. If anybody wants to have a go, you can send me a photograph of what you have built and if I get enough reponse I will post a page of models and we can add to it.

I'm off to have a go and I will post my efforts here, on Rust Bucket, The Spanner II list, Meccano's Community website, Facebook and anywhere else I can find. Come and join in - you never know, Meccano do read stuff posted on the internet - Even this! If you do post stuff head it 'Bring back the 52!' and we can keep pushing, you never know, it might just work and we can have some fun in the mean time!

Ralph.

 

The same but different!

85 years apart but from the same family...

Having just completed building the model of the Steam Wagon from the 1929 steam engine manual (see HERE), It struck me how similar the 'look' of the model is to the current 10-model, Multimodel set models. The skeletal construction and the use of braced girders to 'fill' areas that are solid on the prototype is common to both.

...and from a lower angle

There have been periods in the life of Meccano when all seemed lost. The product was going off in a direction that I was not very happy with. In the early 1980s, after the closure of the famous Binns Road factory, in Liverpool, and the subsequent offering from the then owners, Airfix, I thought the brand was dead. Fortunately for the Brand (but no so much for me - I was a creditor) the Aifix empire collapsed and after a short period of uncertainty Meccano was revived by the Meccano factory in France who had managed to gain control of the brand.

Today, the current sets are vastly different from those made and sold decades ago but the models still show amazing similarities and are totally back-compatibility, using the same hole spacing, diameter and thread specification. Change whatever you like, Mr Meccano, but do not ever change these specification and Meccano will live for ever with granddad's Meccano being compatible with today's offerings.

Ralph.

That bike again!

Builder Simeon Oakley astride the Meccano bike

This week the Meccano bike, built for the BBC programme The Motorcycle Diary, has joined the latest display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu; The Motorcycle Story.  The Meccano bike will be there for the duration of the event, apart from a short period between the 2nd and the 7th of July when it will be the star attraction at Skegex14, details can be found HERE.

A Perfect Spring day (raining!) as the bike arrives at Beaulieu

More pictures of the Meccano bike can be found HERE, HERE and HERE 

Ralph.

1929 Steam Wagon

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge!

My version of an 85 year old model

In 1929 Meccano Limited produced a steam engine that had a vertical boiler and, for the first time, a baseplate designed to allow it to be physically built-in to a model. A book of instructions and suggested models was supplied with the engine. Most of the models shown are very basic and it looks as if the manual was hurriedly put together in order to make it ready for Christmas 1929. The new engine was announced in a full page advert that appeared in Meccano Magazine of September that year.

A lot of the models show were machine tools that could be combined to make a steam powered workshop, indeed, there was also instructions to build a small workshop in its entirety. Other plans included a capstan and several cranes, some better than others, but all built from relatively small sets. Given the price of the engine being One Guinea, That is 21/- (21 Shillings - £1.05) at the time this was a huge amount of money at the time and way beyond what most parents could afford. In today's money that is about £200.00. It stands to reason the any child who was given one of these engines would also have a much bigger set of Meccano than was needed to build the manual models.       

In order to take account of this, in the back of the instruction manual were two models that used more parts. One was the steam powered SML19, Steam shovel. The full building instructions for this model were published as one of the Super Model Leaflets (SML 19a) in December 1929. Since then it must have been built many times. In later years it has also been built using the, horizontal boiler steam engine that first appeared in the 1965.

The other model shown in the back of the instruction manual is a steam-powered version of the SML 6, Stiff Leg Derrick. Unlike the other model, although promised by Meccano at the time, no plans were ever published before the engine was withdrawn in the early 1930s. However plans were published decades later and I have built this model using both the 1929 and 1965 engines. An article about the building of the models and reference sources for the plans can be downloaded HERE (Approximately 4.8Mb)

This is the extent of the plans - click on the plan to enlarge

From the other models in the book I decided to have a go at building model No. S 27 Steam wagon using 'modern' parts and fixings. When I say modern, I am talking about mainly post-war parts and in our preferred colour scheme of red and zinc.  

This view show the coal bunker slung under the rear

Taking a leaf out of Sue's book, I selected the parts as per the parts list. This was the first mistake. The list of parts bears only a passing resemblance as to what is actually needed. I reverted back to my usual plan of selecting parts as I go. The written instructions only tell part of the story and the rather confusing pictures are of limited help. To some extent, I enjoy this sort of thing. It makes the built far more interesting than just following a perfect plan. Maybe that is just me, but I am a Meccano builder, not a modeller who uses Meccano, if you see what I mean. I have said this many times, once the model is finished I can't wait to take it apart and build something else. If it was too easy to build I would not be interested.

Looks OK from the right hand side

After several hours of messing around I eventually got going on the principle that it was better to start building something than sitting here trying to work it out first. I started with the cab and soon worked out that the chassis rails are comprised of two 12½ inch girders overlapped by 15 holes! Then it is a case of finding girders that will work together, that is, are square (ish) and have the holes punched in such a position that a bolt can be passed through the round holes, taking full advantage of Meccano's hole-to-bolt tolerance.

The crude steering is a bit sloppy but it works

I gave up on the written descriptions and simply continued to build what I could see in the pictures. Most of the build was reasonably straight forward once I got started. The one thing that didn't work for me was the way the steering was arranged. A single fishplate bolted to the 'spring' and the rod left to find its own centre in the slotted hole was never going to work very well.

The 1 inch strip added - see text

I decided to swap the fishplate for a 1 inch x ½ inch bracket and take advantage of a modern 1 inch narrow strip bolted across the slotted hole to give a round-hole for the steering pivot rod to journal into. A washer is placed between the 1 inch strip and the bracket to prevent it binding when tightened - work a treat! That is, until I came to fit the steam engine and found the lugs on the bracket fouled the cylinder. Sharp eyed readers will have noticed they are up the other way on the finished model - didn't you!

More on this model HERE  and see the video HERE.

Ralph.    

Look what followed us home...

We got home from the HTMC (Holy Trinity Meccano Club) on Saturday and found a whole load of Meccano in the boot. Do you ever have that problem?

Boxed with all the original paperwork!

The first thing to come to light, hiding in the boot, was a was a very nice, boxed Cricket ball motor. Nothing special but according to the guarantee slip it is the same age as me! It looks as if it has never been used and still has its inspection tag. 

It even has some drive bands, original I think...

Unless anyone says otherwise I don't expect this to have any great value so I will use it for what it was intended for and build it into a model. The next items are a reflection on what is happening in our hobby today.

Where did that come from?

There are many ways to enlarge a collection of Meccano. In my youth, I would ask Mum, Dad and Father Christmas - that usually resulted in a 'joint' present! Then the paper-round gave me cash to go and pester the man in Forest Hill until the Meccano buying was curtailed for a while when I discovered girls. By the time I was buying again it was a totally different scene. Very little (if any) was readily available and what was I had no interest in whatsoever. By this time Sue and I were married and we would take our annual trip to Henley for the show in the Town Hall and our regular trip to Geoff Wright's famous Meccano shop, MW Models. Other than buying a few bits and pieces from dealers at our local club meeting the only other place to find Meccano was at jumble sales and boot fairs. We might find the odd set in a charity shop, but I can count on one hand the number of times we have been successful.  It was not until the internet and web-based auctions became available that we really started to find good amounts of Meccano, readily available

Tamsi motor lurking under there...

...another powering the steering plus a couple of others

The tide is turning on the availability of parts. A lot of the 'attic finds' have gone and although the number of listings has rocketed in recent years, they are usually for small number of parts at high prices or large accumulations of 'junk' with hugely inflated price tags. There are a few bargains still to be had, but the cream is long gone.

   Listen up people! Just because it is old, and either is or looks 

   like Meccano, does not mean it is worth anything - Got it!

In recent months another trend seems to be escalating. Large life-long collections of Meccano are being auctioned off or offered for sale within the community. These collections of parts can be enormous especially if the owner is someone who does not take their models apart! Many of these collections are sold on an all or nothing deal and Sue an I have bought the odd collection like that in the past. Others are subjected to the ravages of the auction house and often do not make the sort of money the owner/family expect.

Between all this mayhem you will find there is some level ground. We have documented here on our blog, and earlier on our website, that we have purchased built up models. Normally this is because they are Meccano-built dealer display models and are bought (usually rescued) with the aim of refurbishing them to their original grandeur.  Occasionally we will buy made up models for the parts as we did a few years ago when we bought a complete SML 4 Blocksetter - see HERE.

The owner had built it from good clean or new parts and although when we went to collect it, he was in the progress of building another huge model, he could not bring himself to take it apart, preferring to buy more stock. 

What's this another collection of parts...

A similar thing happened on Saturday. There, on the dealer's table, were a couple of models built in red/zinc. As anyone who knows us, that is our preferred colours scheme. Closer inspection revealed that there was a lot of 'extended-range' parts and some large stainless steel plates. Not to everybody's taste, but we like all modern parts, genuine Meccano or not, so long as they are generic parts that Meccano 'might' have made. The models had been built by the seller and again he said he did not want to take them apart after spending so much time building them. He went on to say that he was happy for the buyer to take them apart as they had been sitting in his loft for some considerable time anyway. 

Some useful parts here!

We are now in the process of demolishing them for the parts and discovering why the owner had put off the task - how many nuts and bolts?

Other things to follow us home were a selection of odd brass bits and a pile of spoked wheels! Now, I wonder how that lot got there...

Ralph.

Rack and pinions...

The current 7-model Multiset

A week or so ago, our friend and fellow Meccano nut, Subrata, from Sikkim, India, posted a picture of a working spring balance on the Spanner II list. It was built from parts taken from the current 7 - model, Multimodel set. Subrata was following on from my post of the 16th April regarding making small models from larger sets. The original post is HERE.

Subrata's spring balance

The weight of an object placed on the tray will compress the spring and cause the rack to be pushed downwards. This will rotate the pinion mounted on the rod (journaled in the grey bracket) that carries the indicator mini strip at one end. Subrata has used the rack and pinion, from the 7-model set, to covert linier motion into rotary motion, the reverse of how it is normally used in Meccano sets.

The plastic rack (P/N A343) was introduced to the system in 1998.  Since then it has been used in various sets and it is normally employed as the 'rack'  in a rack and pinion steering system.  Using the part described as 'Steering Wheel Mounting Bracket' (P/N A425) as a bearing it can be paired up with a 12t pinion to make a self contained rack and pinion mechanism most commonly used in Meccano to facilitate steering. Subrata has used these parts as the basis of his spring balance model.

Using the steering wheel bracket to support the 12t pinion and rack

The rack has 18 teeth and when meshed with a 12t pinion, one revolution of the pinion will transverse the majority of the rack leaving a few teeth spare either end. this rate of gearing works fine with most models where the idea to replicate some sort of rack and pinion steering. To generate a greater movement of the rack, meshing it with a 24t pinion would then mean the rack can be transverse to the same extent as when using a 12t pinion, with only half a revolution of the rod supporting the 24t pinion.

The new bracket allows the 24t pinion to be used with the rack

To achieve  this another bracket is required, and along it came in the Evolution ATV set. This new bracket (P/N C920) has longer lugs with extra hole holes spaced in order to facilitate the 24t pinion at the correct spacing for meshing with the rack.  Using this set up in the ATV gives a much better steering response to the handlebars than if the lower-geard 12t set up had been used.

More and more parts are emerging from these new sets and combining these with the existing range of parts available opens up a wealth of new possibilities.

Ralph.

Dynamic bike!

The engine looks the part!

After building the new Evolution Chopper bikes I thought I would have a go at something from years gone by. I came across a Motorbike set from the range of sets that Meccano labelled 'Dynamic' made over 20 years ago in France.

These sets featured zinc/red/yellow parts and although some of the new plastic parts were appearing for the first time, there were still some brass parts included.  The tyres, to fit 1½ inch pulleys, are of a design I had not seen before and look more like motorcycle tyres. Dated 1993, I guess they must have been new parts at the time.

Dynamic motorbike set

The instructions are very colourful, you could say Dynamic, and feature a comical cartoon character who ends up holding an oil after spending the whole time constantly waving his finger at you!  He even dons full leathers and a crash helmet pointing (again) at his finished bike. Once you get your eye in the instructions are very clear but they get a bit of getting used to.

The bike from the otherside

The build was easy although a bit fiddly in places. I was impressed with the engine, it makes up easily and really looks like a motorcycle engine. As I have said before, I know nothing about bikes, I just like the look of them. However, I am not at all sure about the spring arrangement for the front forks  - is there a prototype that has springs at the top like they are arranged on this model? 

Overall, I was pleased with the way this bike went together and the finished model is solid, looks the part and I enjoyed building it.

Sue.

Kitchen, Bismarck or Bagger?

Bagger 228 Finished - 1¼ ton in weight and the best part of four years building

How many times has the other-half asked you to do something, just as you were about to start building a model, to which you answered "I'll just finish this dear" and got away with it? Remarkably there is one guy who did, and he got away with it for years!

A retired mathematics lecturer in Grahamstown, South Africa did just that; only his project took him the best parts of four years to complete. In mid 2009 Graham Shepherd was facing retirement and decided to dig out his old Meccano set with the a view to looking for a suitable project to tackle.

Initially  he thought about building a model of the battleship Bismarck, something he had contemplated doing since seeing the pictures of the sunken vessel taken by Roger Ballard and his team when they found the wreck in 1989. As Graham was short on Meccano plates he started making replicas of his own. He wanted enough plates to build an18 foot long model. 

"Can you put that away now dear - supper is nearly ready" ..." Er, No"

By June 2010 he began to reconsider the Bismarck project, as a Meccano ship was not all that exciting from a mechanisation point of view. I tend to agree with those thoughts myself, I have never built a Meccano ship. Even as a kid, I always thought a ship full of holes was a silly idea.

Graham's thoughts turned to an excavator, he had seen, that worked in open-cast coal mines in Germany.  Time spent on the internet researching these huge machines resulted in a decision being made. The machine he decided to build is known as Bagger 288 - a bucket wheel excavator built by Krupp of Germany.

To give scale to the model, here is Graham standing next to it

Nearly four years later when I 'spoke' to him this morning via e-mail, I asked him what the next project was to be, he said:

"What's next is that I have got to turn my attention to all the things that got neglected due to my preoccupation with Bagger 288! I was on the point of renewing the kitchen of our home for a start. Not to mention the jungle that our garden has turned into!"

 "I'll just finish this dear" Yes, I really do think this model has elevated that phrase to new heights and there will be dozens, if not hundreds, of Meccano builders everywhere referring to Graham's story to justify the fact that they will not be that bad! Thank you Graham for a fantastic model and the best defence against domestic discord yet!

The story behind Graham's remarkable model can be found on his blog HERE.

Graham has just written another article for Constructor Quarterly and this will be published in the September (actually on sale in July just after SkegEx). All pictures used in this post are reproduced here with the kind permission Graham Shepherd.

Ralph.

New 3 and 10 model sets...

New Multimodel sets for spring are here!

The new Multimodel sets are a refreshing move back to the more traditional parts. Meccano are constantly upgrading the Multimodel range and these two new sets will (should) appeal to the traditionalist and modern enthusiast alike. The sets contain far fewer plastic parts and lots more recognisable metal bits! There are also some newer parts, nothing we haven't seen before, but this time they are supplied in what I would call more traditional colours. Gone are the bright oranges and purples and in with red and yellow all complimented with zinc plates strips and brackets - Great stuff, parts I can use in our larger models!

3-model set light aircraft

The 3- model set is a little gem. The 'star' model is a well proportioned light aircraft reminiscent of the aircraft that line the out-field of the small private airports scattered around the countryside here in the UK. There are no awkward fiddly parts that require supreme levels of dexterity to fit. Nor are there lots of parts that need bending or straining to fit. The model makes up quickly and easily into something that is instantly recognisable.

Although the set does not include any new parts there are a couple of the small triangular girder frames, finished in a red paint. These have only been supplied in Matt black up until now. The red Multi-Purpose gear (P/N A827) has no boss and is bored with a standard size round hole. I did suspect this was a new part for a while, but as my mate George (Roy) reminded me it was also included in a Future-Master set some fifteen years ago and has not been seen since. The model can be seen in THIS post from January last year where I used other components from the set to build powered, tracked vehicles.

Ready for work!

 The new10-model set appears to have replaced the old black set that I reviewed four years ago when it first appeared, see HERE. Then it was the first of the new generation sets to hit the UK market. New sets, made in France and featuring new parts that have subsequently been introduced to several of the new Multimodel sets.

The new tyres are a vast improvement on the old low-profile offerings

Tipping and articulated - great fun!

 The latest 10 model set is, in my opinion the best yet! the plastic content has been reduced to a few useful parts, the chosen colour (yellow) is good and it is full of traditional looking Meccano parts. The box-art model of a dumper truck makes up well and has a traditional Meccano look to it. This will (Should?) appeal to the traditionalist and the newcomer alike.

More than 10 models inside

Digging a little further into the set, I thought it would be fun to have a go at building a few minimal models flavour of those old pre-war manuals. Unlike today's sets. Meccano in those days contained instructions to build small models using few parts and then progress to bigger models using more and more of the sets contents. The models tended to be of diverse subjects, some of them stranger then others! With this in mind I have extracted three small models from the set.

Landmark simplicity model...

The first could be described as a simplicity model and will solve the nut and bolt 'problem' that Meccano have tried to 'solve' a couple of times by trying to make the construction simpler...

Message to Meccano: Please don't, we like nut and bolts!  

Yes it's the landmark model Meccano never built. What do you mean you don't know what it is! It's... well I am sure you know, but I will tell you anyway... The leaning Tower of Pisa. 

Girl and dog

Next up is a homage to all the old set instructions that always contained some people of one kind or another. I can't think of any modern Meccano 'people' yet all the old manuals have families and often animals. To rectify this I have found a little girl with her sausage-dog hiding away in the parts of the 10 set.

Street go-kart

Finally, this one is harping back to my childhood. We lived on the side of a hill and the road behind us came down and around the end of our garden, past the front of the house. This was the perfect place to race our home made go-karts. Usually built from the wheels off an old perambulator and some old wood that we had acquired from somewhere, we would sit in the box and steer with our legs on the front axle. It was fantastic fun in the 1960s there were not the cars about or parked in the road like they are today. The wheels are a bit thicker than we had as kids but the model has the feel of what we used to build.

I am sure there are plenty of other models to be found in that box and many of the other sets that Meccano make today. Have a look at what I found in one of the new Evolution sets HERE.

Ralph.